The steady stream of fall festival darlings hitting the struggling indie box office has begun to flow, starting with Focus Features’ “TÁR” and Neon’s “Triangle of Sadness” hitting theaters in limited release.
After a pandemic recovery year in which Focus has started many of its releases with larger theater counts, “TÁR” is starting with a return to the traditional four-screen launch in New York and Los Angeles, earning $160,000 for a per-theater average of $40,000. With the LA theaters that first got platform releases, the Arclight Hollywood and Landmark Pico, both now closed, Focus has turned to the AMC locations in Century City and the Grove on Fairfax to release “Tár,” while releasing it at the Angelika and AMC Lincoln Square in New York.
Directed by Todd Field, “TÁR” has earned critical acclaim since its premiere at the Venice Film Festival, particularly for Cate Blanchett’s Oscar-contending performance as the genius yet toxic classical music conductor Lydia Tár. With a 97% score on Rotten Tomatoes, the film will add 30 new theaters in 10 cities next weekend with a wide release on Oct. 28.
“Triangle of Sadness,” the Palme D’Or winner at this year’s Cannes Film Festival, was released in 10 theaters by Neon and grossed $210,000 for a $21,000 theater average. Directed by Ruben Ostlund and starring Woody Harrelson, “Triangle of Sadness” is a dark satire of excess wealth and capitalism that sparked a bidding war at Cannes, with Neon winning the North American distribution rights with an $8 million offer. The film has a 73% Rotten Tomatoes score.
With the exception of A24’s runaway indie hit “Everything Everywhere All at Once,” which has grossed a studio-record $70 million domestically and nearly $100 million worldwide, the specialty box office has had little to celebrate since theaters reopened.
With several major arthouse locations closing due to the financial strain of the pandemic and many adult-skewing dramas failing in wide release — including David O. Russell’s “Amsterdam” this weekend — distributors have told TheWrap that they expect specialty box office numbers to continue to be diminished compared to what was seen pre-pandemic when at least a few films getting a platform release would see per-theater averages of $75,000 or higher.
Depending on how the coming winter plays out, the $40,000 average seen for “TÁR” may be closer to what the market regularly sees for the buzziest limited releases going forward.
